Edward O’Connell: Cushy Job, Not for Long

By Wendy L. Ellis, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interview Volunteer

Faith and Family.  No two words better describe what sent Ted O’Connell to Vietnam in 1965, and what brought him home again, all in one piece, 9 months later.   A Chicago southsider all his life, Ted was the youngest of 7 brothers, spread out over a span of 15 years. Although his oldest brother Bill was 4F (unfit for military service), all of the others went into the service.  Dick and Jack went to Korea. Tom was assigned to Fort Sill and never left, Ron was killed in an accident in Korea when the war was over, and Dan was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood for two years.  Ted was the only one who served in Vietnam.

“Back in those days every American boy had to go into the service,” says Ted. After four years at Quigley Seminary and two at Loyola, he was ready for more.  “I knew I had to go, and I wanted to get it over with, so on my 21st birthday I went to the draft board and said ‘Push my number up.’ I went into the Army 8 days before Kennedy was shot – Nov. 14th, 1963.”

 His time at Fort Knox may have been a bit longer because of the Kennedy assassination, but he was eventually sent to Fort Sill where he went to Officer Candidate School, In May of 1965, he received his 2nd Lieutenant’s bars.  He became the survey officer of an Honest John missile battalion and for the next couple months Ted did all the typical Second Lieutenant duties, serving as a safety officer, a range officer and anything else they asked him to do.

“I was really bored,” says Ted. Bored, until he attended the wedding of his battalion commander’s daughter on July 2, 1965. The officer of the day came up to him and said they were looking for volunteers to go to Vietnam.  “Scuttlebutt was, it was a cushy job. There was no war to speak of at that time. There were very few Americans in Vietnam.”

It was a cushy job until about two weeks after he arrived in Vietnam. Several second lieutenants were killed and he ended up in an infantry company as a forward observer.

He was in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, anywhere from the South China Sea to the Cambodian border. “Since I called the artillery fire, I had to know where I was at any given time,” says Ted.  “One time we were out for 38 days. The only thing I had for cover was my poncho and my poncho liner.  My radio operator used to build the hooches since I was usually calling defensive concentrations in the late afternoon for safety. In case something happens during the night you can just call it in and say fire over at A, or B or C.”  Ted admits it was a scary time, especially when they were fired upon. “I used to pray all the time, to let me do my job.”

In the 38 days they were out, Ted says they made 15 air assaults, looking for the enemy and calling in strike locations. “When we went to Bong Son, two battalions went in and they caught all kinds of hell,” says Ted. “Everybody in my tent but me was either killed or wounded. I was the only one who came out without a scratch.”  And to what does he attribute that?  The prayers of his parents.

“I had two brothers go through the Korean War. One of them was wounded. I had one brother who was killed in Korea, shortly after the war. I had two first cousins killed in Korea and one first cousin killed in Normandy. My parents prayed an awful lot when I was over there.  Every night when my brothers Jack and Dick were in Korea, the family would say the rosary, EVERY NIGHT!  And usually there’d be two or three people on the block who had sons in the service and they’d come over too, even including some protestants!” 

 There are moments etched into Ted’s memory that he carries with him to this day.  He and a fellow soldier were calling in artillery fire when a young girl, about 10, was wounded. “I just remember them lifting this girl on to the helicopter, with her leg dangling, and you knew it was coming off, and it was either John or I that called the artillery fire. I always felt bad about that.  Aside from losing friends, that’s the one incident that sticks in my mind.”

He says he was also struck by the contrasts of the war. “I can remember one time being dropped off on the top of a mountain, and we suspected there was a camp down below. It was raining like hell and we slid down about 50 feet and came to rest looking at the most beautiful wild orchids I’d ever seen.”

Ted received a Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam, and unlike many Vietnam vets who came home in later years, his reception was a good one. He was one of six officers who got off the plane in San Francisco and went down to Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner. The manager of the restaurant bought them all dinner, and later, at a local drinking establishment, the drinks were on the house.

Ted went back to school and finished his degree in history at Loyola, although he spent 30 years in insurance before retiring ten years ago. It was at a birthday party for his brother’s boss in February of ’68 that he marked another milestone in his life.  His date didn’t show up, so he spent the evening talking to a woman whose fiancé was in Vietnam.  It was 11 months later that he found out the two had broken up, so he called her up and asked her out.  Their first date was New Year’s Eve, 1968, and the rest is history. He and his wife Debbie have now been married for 51 years, raised two sons, and enjoy their 8 grandchildren.   Their family and their faith, continue to see them through. 

Thank you Ted O’Connell for your heroic service to our country! Enjoy your well-deserved Honor Flight!